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Will Swenson has been preparing to play Neil Diamond almost his entire life. “I listened to him so much as a kid, and I was playing Neil Diamond songs on the guitar when I was in eighth grade,” he says.
So playing a young Neil in A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical is a dream come true for the Broadway star. Opening early next month, the show traces the shy Jewish kid from Brooklyn’s journey to becoming a hit-making machine with sold-out concerts around the world and 140 million album sales to his name.
Like Diamond, Swenson is a baritone, so he nailed a nifty impression of the artist who penned countless hits, from singalong anthem Sweet Caroline to the number-one hit Cracklin’ Rosie.
“I would do Neil stuff now and then, just kind of as a party trick, and so when this musical rolled around, I was just like, ‘That’s for me’.”
The way the show is framed is really artful, he says. “The structure of it is really smart and gets to the depth of who he is and the challenges that he’s gone through and continues to go through.”
An older Diamond, played by Terence Crawford, in therapy sessions with his counsellor, provides an insight into the acclaimed musician’s mind. Audiences are genuinely surprised when they leave, having had a really emotional experience as well as a great musical experience, Swenson says.
One of the most surreal moments for Swenson was the day the team pitched the idea of the show to the man himself. “We were in this small room and I was singing 20 Neil Diamond songs, doing a Neil Diamond voice in front of him … 10 feet (three metres) away. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” Swenson says.
“Once he gave the go-ahead, he couldn’t have been more supportive and helpful; he just gave gentle nudges along the way about, ‘maybe do it this way, that not that way’.
“But it was a thrill. To get to have his input and have him in the room and know that he was behind it. He was incredibly kind to me and the cast.”
TEG Dainty executive producer Susie Parks says Australians have a particular connection with the legendary singer/songwriter who toured here seven times between 1976 and 2015. His 1972 live album Hot August Night spent 29 weeks at number one and 65 weeks on the charts.
Now 85, Diamond was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2018, at which point he stopped performing live. He was due to visit Australia and New Zealand that year as part of a 50-year-anniversary tour.
The show finished its US tour on Sunday night. Directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Chess, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and choreographed by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), it was written by four-time Academy Award nominee Anthony McCarten, known for Bohemian Rhapsody and The Two Popes.
